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ARMENIAN IMMIGRANT'S 100TH BIRTHDAY IS TIME FOR REFLECTION
By Arya Hebbar, Correspondent
San Mateo County Times, CA
Nov 2 2007
The Janjigian household in Saratoga is abuzz with preparations and
the arrival of family for a 100th birthday celebration.
Laughter and lively conversation, in voices young and old, flow through
the open door leading to the neat garden where Nevart Karagozian sits
quietly, even though she is the focus of the excitement. Karagozian,
an Armenian who came to America when she was 12, is celebrating her
100th birthday the next day.
"Oh my. Big party," she says when her daughter Florence Janjigian
reminds her about the impending celebration. Asked how it feels to be
100 years old, she says in accented English, "Same as yesterday. No
different," and chuckles.
But Karagozian's early days were quite different from the comfort
and security she has enjoyed in recent decades. And the birthday
celebration is clouded by memories of a ravaged homeland and the
lingering desire for justice. Karagozian is one of the hundreds of
thousands of Armenians who fled their homeland in the wake of the
mass killings of Armenians nearly a century ago. And she is among
those who hope their new country - America - will formally recognize
the mass slaughter of their ancestors as genocide.
Janjigian is sad that the vote on the resolution has been postponed.
There are few survivors of that era remaining and she fears soon
there will be no eyewitnesses left.
When her granddaughter asks Karagozian about Turkey denying the
genocide, Karagozian leans forward on her wheelchair
http://www.insidebayarea.com/sanmateoc ountytimes/localnews/ci_7349885
By Arya Hebbar, Correspondent
San Mateo County Times, CA
Nov 2 2007
The Janjigian household in Saratoga is abuzz with preparations and
the arrival of family for a 100th birthday celebration.
Laughter and lively conversation, in voices young and old, flow through
the open door leading to the neat garden where Nevart Karagozian sits
quietly, even though she is the focus of the excitement. Karagozian,
an Armenian who came to America when she was 12, is celebrating her
100th birthday the next day.
"Oh my. Big party," she says when her daughter Florence Janjigian
reminds her about the impending celebration. Asked how it feels to be
100 years old, she says in accented English, "Same as yesterday. No
different," and chuckles.
But Karagozian's early days were quite different from the comfort
and security she has enjoyed in recent decades. And the birthday
celebration is clouded by memories of a ravaged homeland and the
lingering desire for justice. Karagozian is one of the hundreds of
thousands of Armenians who fled their homeland in the wake of the
mass killings of Armenians nearly a century ago. And she is among
those who hope their new country - America - will formally recognize
the mass slaughter of their ancestors as genocide.
Janjigian is sad that the vote on the resolution has been postponed.
There are few survivors of that era remaining and she fears soon
there will be no eyewitnesses left.
When her granddaughter asks Karagozian about Turkey denying the
genocide, Karagozian leans forward on her wheelchair
http://www.insidebayarea.com/sanmateoc ountytimes/localnews/ci_7349885